New Delhi, 21 September 2011 – The International Standardization Organization’s annual General Assembly was the occasion for a landmark cooperation agreement to be ratified, in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding, between on the one hand European standards developers (CEN and CENELEC) and on the other, the institution representing standards users’ interests (IFAN).

Founded in 1974, the International Federation of Standards Users (IFAN) is an independent, non profit-making international association of national organisations for the application of standards, companies, professional and trade associations, and governmental agencies, concerned with the use of standards.

For this reason, both CEN and CENELEC recognize the valuable role of IFAN in promoting the implementation of standards, in consolidating standards users’ interests in standardization and related areas, and in exchanging views based on experience in the field of the application of standards.

The Memorandum, which replaces the existing two agreements of cooperation with IFAN focuses on increasing cooperation and in particular joint activities or studies related to standardization, especially where these activities or studies require a wide range of respondents and/or joint participation of standards users and standards developers.

Mrs Elena Santiago Cid, CEN and CENELEC Director General was pleased to note that "with this CEN-CENELEC agreement we are revitalising our cooperation with the standards users, improving the education about standardization and strengthening the link with our customers, inviting them to give us feedback and react quicker to their requests".

From a consumer’s perspective, this is an important step towards in ensuring deliverables that fully take into account standards users’ needs. It also highlights the high degree of accessibility offered by the European Standardization process, where a maximum of stakeholders are included by the European Standards developers (the European Standards Organisations), in this particular case CEN and CENELEC.

Overall cooperation is expected to thrive between standards users and standards developers, making this Memorandum of Understanding vital in our joint pursuit of excellence in the domain of standardization.

Mr Ross Wraight, the President of IFAN, said that the “signing of the MoU was a significant milestone for IFAN and reinforces the importance of standard user input into the standards development process. It is also timely given the extensive efforts being made in Europe to reach out to the SME sector. IFAN can provide direct user input which will result in user friendly standards that are more relevant to businesses needs."

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